Uncertain futures, wavering hopes: Crisis, pandemic, and expectations around the COVID-10 Vaccination Process in Argentina

VISACOVSKY, SERGIO EDUARDO; NOEL, GABRIEL

New Orleans

Congreso; A Revelatory Pandemic? Disaster Social Science and COVID 19 in Latin America; 2021

the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program at the University of New Orleans and the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), México

As we will show, since the beginning of the pandemic, an intense political and media dispute has pervaded the public-political scene. Media and politically, this is usually defined as “la grieta” (the crack). For almost ten years, this image has prevailed in the discourse of the media and the political arena in general. this notion presupposes a relationship of exclusion between antagonistic opposites, a recurrent social logic throughout Argentine history. Although "la grieta” is used to typify the antagonism between Kirchnerists and anti-Kirchnerists, those who invoke it often believe that it reproduces pre-existing historical antagonisms, dating back to the 19th century. We do not want to underestimate the importance of this local term, but neither do we want to reproduce its genealogical constructions, as if they were actual historical continuities. We are interested in how this local term presupposes common thought schemes, such as the same diagnosis about the problems of the present as constitutive problems of the existence of the nation. According to this shared diagnosis, Argentina is a country that had been in decline for many years due to having abandoned the correct road. So, it is always a matter of returning to that path and preventing another in the opposite direction. From a temporal point of view, the positions of antagonistic opposites are always unstable, since they can never be sure of their continuity. They will always be threatened by the antagonistic opposite that intends to return.